A Boston College sports blog capturing the highs and lows of being a BC fan living 1,000 miles from Chestnut Hill.

Thursday, October 02, 2014

Checking in on Addazio's Year 2 at Temple

One of the reasons Addazio's hiring disappointed was that he was coming off a losing season at Temple. Tell me if this reminds you of anything? In his first year the new coach overachieved and won over the fan base with his enthusiasm. In Year 2 expectations were lower due to losing a leading rusher, but the coach still had them sitting at 3-2 after five games. Following the 3-2 start the team fell apart and lost four straight and were rarely competitive in the losses.

I didn't follow Temple in 2012. Beyond the stats I don't know why things fell apart midseason. But I hope Addazio learned something. BC cannot afford four-straight losses right now and despite the exposed weaknesses, BC can still beat any or all of their next four opponents.

Addazio had talent and roster issues in 2012 and was trying to compete in a major conference while fielding a MAC-level roster. BC doesn't have that same excuse. I hope Addazio understands the other factors in his slide as BC needs to rebound now. At NC State, Clemson at Alumni, at VT and at Wake should not lopsided. BC will probably be favored at Wake and gets Clemson at home. BC needs to get two wins out of this block. It will get us closer to a bowl and will show that Addazio is a guy who can adapt and not just win with some other guy's players.

14 comments:

Murphy is more a concern than Addazio. A recent picture on BC Interruption showed that he doesn't even put his fingers on the laces when he passes. The enthusiasm of Addazio is great. He has to consider using Wade.

It's amazing to me people are still going on about benching Murphy. Unless you didn't watch the USC game, you would know that without him we would have lost that game (which instead became the biggest win of the last decade, maybe program history).

Can we please stop with this nonsense. We're not going to start Wade. Murphy is our quarterback for this year.

I don't support benching Murphy with quite the fervor that JBQ does, but why bash him for suggesting it? What are we trying to accomplish this year? 6-6 and the Kohler Toilet Bowl?

Getting Wade valuable, non-D2 game experience seems like it would be in the best interest of the future. Everyone knew going into the season this would be a rough year, so why not use it to build toward something -hopefully- meaningful?

I support benching Murphy, but not because I dislike him or think Wade could be better. Murphy isn't the future... he is 1 and done. Yes, he won an amazing game. He put the team on his back against USC and gave us the most exciting win in a decade. That being said, 7 or 8 games from now he's gone. He does have some major flaws in decision making and passing ability (passing mechanics, really). Why not give Darius Wade the reps? Not playing him is setting up excuses for a poor season next year. Let Murphy mentor him and serve as a back up. I don't want to see the VaTech revolving door of QBs each drive scenario, but the kid needs exposure and playing time if he is going to compete next year. Addazio said it himself... no matter how hard you try, practice is nothing like the game...

...which brings me to my other point. We lost last week, largely, in my opinion, because we had to rely on the pass at the end of the game. We only attempted a handful of passes prior to that. We've only attempted a handful of passes in most games this year. We can't be expected to execute in game if we don't do it with regularly. We may practice it.. but - full circle - if we don't regularly do it in games regularly, the O-Line won't know how to block appropriately for passing plays, Murphy won't be warmed up for them, the TEs & RBs won't be well-prepared to block, and the WRs will be rusty and drop more passes or run worse routes.

Daz failed at Temple because he is stubborn with his offensive system. Ryan Day is not a good OC and he's "style" is to have 1 gameplan and stick with it. His gameplan is unoriginal, albeit exciting at times. We've seen it at BC a million times... adapt to your tools; your tools can't adapt to the job. He did a good job with it last year but he has all but thrown the book out on passing plays. Teams study film on us and they see we can't execute passing plays. They're going to load the box and while our new RBs are solid, we lack a QB that can catch them off their game with passes or deep balls. That is why we need Darius Wade (and a better OC than Ryan Day [ cough cough Steve Logan cough cough])

The upside is that you give Wade the opportunity to develop into a decent QB for next year. If he struggles and fails, you move on. I'd rather find that out now to prepare for next year than experimenting next year and losing the entire season.

"We lost last week, largely, in my opinion, because we had to rely on the pass at the end of the game."

Think it was mainly because the D in the 2nd half's drives allowed:

82 yards - TD56 yards - FG51 yards - 4th Down stop90 yards - TD

Think I read this year's offense so far is averaging the most points of any BC offense in over a decade.

Murphy has been this team's best player and a bowl game is still huge for a program that 2 years ago won 1 game over a D1 school. It's also beneficial for the future as they get an extra month of practice.

I don't see why this has to be an either or proposition. Continue to start Murphy but get Wade in for a series or two. If the game is in the tank in the second half give Wade the rest of the game. Then w/ 2 games to go and we can't make a bowl turn it over to Wade.